Mahendra Singh Dhoni walked into the indoor school at the Kia Oval for his pre-match press conference carrying his khaki army-issue backpack as if to underline that his fighting spirit was alive and well despite the series standing at 2-1 to England.

Dhoni’s admiration for the Indian army led to him being made an honorary lieutenant colonel in the parachute regiment in 2011 and he often spends days off, such as the one he had on Wednesday, shooting at a local rifle range.

The captain of India is normally there to be shot at himself and the slump in India’s form in this series has made Dhoni a sitting target.

His team have been lambasted at home since the Old Trafford Test with even the normally reserved Times of India publishing a piece headlined, The Unmaking of Indian Captain M S Dhoni.

Michael Holding wrote this week for Wisden India that Dhoni’s captaincy in this series had “been questionable” adding: “It seems to me that he is trying to do things that people say he shouldn’t do just to prove them wrong”.

As Dhoni spoke on Thursday, the ESPN cricinfo website was running a debate on whether he should quit as India’s Test captain.

That will not happen. Dhoni is here to stay. He is safe, partly thanks to the fact there is no realistic alternative, a similar situation to England and Alastair Cook, and the fact he has achieved some remarkable highs as India captain.

Many have been confined to one-day cricket and India’s woeful record overseas in the Test arena dogs Dhoni. The win at Lord’s two weeks ago was their first Test victory overseas for three years and only their second at the home of cricket.

The danger accompanying such an emotional achievement was that Dhoni’s team would feel as if they had fulfilled their task in England even with three further Tests still to play.

Since then, they chased the conviction of James Anderson which Dhoni took on as a personal mission. It turned out to be a mistake, providing England with the kind of motivation they needed after slumping to such a low at Lord’s, and filled India with a sense of injustice which has proved a distraction.

The loss of Ishant Sharma has hurt India more, robbing Dhoni of his senior bowler. Ishant was passed fit on Thursday and will return for the hapless Pankaj Singh with Stuart Binny likely to play instead of Ravindra Jadeja.

Heavy rain in London has dampened the Oval pitch, ruling out the necessity of picking two spinners. Such is the change in fortune that Dhoni is likely to drop his personal favourite Jadeja, a player he has promoted over the years but who has brought his captain a lot of trouble this series, even if his plucky batting did win the Lord’s Test.

It is India’s top five that has misfired and the compact nature of this series has left them without an opportunity to find form away from the glare of international cricket. Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane are the only top-order batsmen averaging over 25 and their returns have been diminishing in the past two Tests.

“The best thing for the batsmen is to do some minor changes in your batting if needed and be aware of the problem you have to face,” said Dhoni, who did just that himself to score runs at Old Trafford.

“If you have one month in between that is off you can go into the technical aspect, work on your technique, because what also happens is, you go into the game after trying to change a few things and you miss the first few deliveries and the first thing you want to do is return to your basics. So it becomes very difficult to handle. So far the batsmen have been working on the technique and it is a matter of time before it starts showing.”